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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

The so-called "419" scam is a type of fraud dominated by criminals from Nigeria and other countries in Africa. Victims of the scam are promised a large amount of money, such as a lottery prize, inheritance, money sitting in some bank account, etc.

Victims never receive this non-existent fortune but are tricked into sending their money to the criminals, who remain anonymous. They hide their real identity and location by using fake names and fake postal addresses as well as communicating via anonymous free email accounts and mobile phones.

Keep in mind that scammers DO NOT use their real names when defrauding people.
The criminals either abuse names of real people or companies or invent names or addresses.
Any real people or companies mentioned below have NO CONNECTION to the scammers!

Read more about such scams here or in our 419 FAQ. Use the Scam-O-Matic to verify suspect emails.

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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: "MRS Umar Ben" <mrsumar_ben113@live.263.net>
Reply-To: <mrsumarben@sify.com>
Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2002 02:43:04 +0530
Subject: Mrs. Fatima Umar Ben

I crave your indulgence at this mail coming from somebody you have not know before. I decided to do this after praying over the situation. You should please consider the transaction on its content and notthe fact that you have not known me before. I need not dwell on how I came by your contact information because there are many such possibilities these days.

I would like to introduce myself as Mrs. Fatima Umar Ben,of Repulic of Gabon, widow to Late Mr. umar ben (for Consular of the Gabon embassy in Madrid,Spain.I have been recently been daigonosed of Cancer of the Pelvics.

I am writing from my sick bed.There is this consignment (containg US$29.5Million cash, in US$100 bills) my husband deposited with a security company,of which I am the next of kin. With my health condition and because my husband and I have no children, I am looking for a credible person to whom I will pass the right of next of kin. This person will apply to the company and request, from them, the procedure towards retrieving the consignment from them.This is on the condition that you will take 25% of the fund for yourself, 5% used for expenses, while you will use the remaining 70% for the less previlege people in the society. This is in fulfilment of the last request of my husband: that a substantial part of the fund be used to carterfor the less previleged.

If this condition is acceptable to you, you should contact me immediately with your full names and contact information so that I will send you all the documents that the company gave to myhusband when the consignment was deposited. So that you will contact the company directly, and demand from them the procedure towards retrieving the consignment from their company. I cannot predict what will be my fate by the time you wll recieve the fund, but you should please ensure that the fund is used as i have
described above.
I look forward to your response.
Yours,
Mrs. Fatima Umar Ben

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